Its been an incredibly busy but wonderful time at the Inspirational Outdoors Conference at the start of this week.   My head is busily digesting everything and eager to put some new ideas into practice.   

This is the second year of the conference, it was fantastic last year and has now grown into a 2 day event packed full of workshops, talks, discussions and so many amazing ways of sharing ideas; the delegates came from across the UK with some international presence too and the ideas were flowing all over with such excitement.   

I was really delighted to be running sessions this year, as well as attending the whole conference, it was a deeply immersive experience and the layers of inspiration run deep.   I camped at the venue along with a few other participants, which enabled us to cook our meals outside as we watched dusk set in and continued to discuss so many aspects of creativity outside.   The 20 minute walk down the hillside to the beach is an added bonus and enabled us to be sat on the sand watching the sun sink below the horizon as we unpicked our ideas and thoughts around the millions of ways connections with nature encourage creativity, calm, learning and ignite curiosity.

I ran sessions which were a bit of a whistle-stop tour of exploring ways of working with clay outside and of working with natural materials to generate colours; the participants were wonderful with their ideas and enthusiasm and warm energy as we explored lots of different things.   It left me buzzing with further ideas and being able to share thoughts about ways of working creatively outside with groups feels very important.   It feeds deeply into all the long term groups I'm working with in Nottingham and Derbyshire. 

I was able to participate in so many sessions, discussions and listen to talks, its such a vital thing to have time to do this, it reinforces so much and ignites so many ideas.   Meeting and listening to Niki Buchan speak was wonderful, she'd travelled in from Australia to talk with a wealth of knowledge and examples of outdoor education from across the world.   We were all transfixed.  The fantastic Gill Mulholland from The Eden Project ran brilliant sessions on using the outside to ignite stories and poems and so much more, I also learnt to make pewter casts over an open fire, something I've wanted to have a go at for ages, the really lovely Lisa Chell ran a  great session on this.    Phil Waters ran a wonderful storytelling quest with the entire set of delegates and there was so much more going on, its hard to know where to start to digest it all!

The venue is the deeply inspirational Mount Pleasant Eco Park which holds unexpected delights at every turn - worth a visit just to see everything that's being developed there.  

​The conference is organised by the wonderful Niki Willows an outdoor play specialist and Martin Besford of Highway Farm (again, one of the most inspirational educational settings I've visited in the UK).  

Details of next years conference are here: ​https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/inspirational-outdoors-2019-cornwalls-outdoor-play-learning-conference-tickets-47063722862?aff=erelexpmlt

HUGE THANKS for the photographs below, I was too busy to take many images this year, so most of the images below were taken either by Martin Scull for the conference or by Simon Turk of Treecreepers which I am incredibly grateful for.  

“When we tug at a single thing in nature we find it attached to the rest of the world.” John Muir

Another remote calm spot here in Derbyshire is Lathkill Dale, which a few days ago was filled with the colours, sights, sounds and smells of late summer - all very soothing.   There were many buzzards soaring and calling, ravens. dippers, grey wagtails and many other birds, including robins singing their wonderful late summer song which feels very evocative of this time of year.    There's something special about these times of transition from one season to another.

​Lathkill Dale is another of the many wonderful places where the remnants of human history mingle with nature, there's old mine workings and a couple of buildings which hint at many stories, as well as nearby stone circles and sites from thousands of years ago, so recent and very ancient human history is nearby.

​These images were taken last week, on one of the last days before the new school term began.    I really love the work I do in schools and its a privilege to be able to work creatively with young people exploring connections with nature and questions about the world, but its also a welcomed change in pace when the school holidays enable longer walks with the camera and time for deep exploration.

​For me, its times in contemplation with natural spaces where solace and peace lies, that's where discoveries are made and there always feels so much to notice.    Even when its places you've been to hundreds of times there are always more and more layers to peel away - and the changing seasons mean that each day new things are revealed or changes take place.

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These were all taken two days ago, up at Over Owler Tor near Hathersage in Derbyshire, a really amazing landscape with wide moorland views, hills, rocky outcrops and twisting pathways at every turn.  I do love autumn but also seek to really cherish these late summer evenings and I've been out with the camera and a note book exploring a lot recently (especially precious time trying to cram moments full of wonderings in nature before the school term starts again and my work schedule changes).

​I'm very aware that there's a slightly comic look when climbing a hill laden down with camera equipment (and a picnic), but its worth it and there's a huge sense of reward that comes with then waiting and watching as the light changes and the sun gets lower in the sky.   Several times recently I've had owls and bats about me on the way back to the car, its a special feeling sharing that transition from day to night, those moments of change in nature are filled with so many tiny details.

​I wasn't alone up at Over Owler Tor - there was a tortoise and a frog there too (if you look in the images below they should leap out) and I like to think that the ancient people who used Carl Wark Hill Fort very close by would have also seen creatures in the stones (not so sure they would have seen a tortoise though).

Its the last day of August today and I've found myself reflecting back on the summer and the different places,  events and moments which have been inspiring - and these little Shepherds Huts were very much amongst those thoughts.   We all need a little escape and definitely for many of us there is something very appealing about the quirks of tiny spaces - its why so many of us love dolls houses, sheds, beach huts, caravans and Wendy Houses.    And put such spaces into a remote rural setting with views over wide landscapes then so many special things come into play.

​I'm very aware that when in use by Shepherds all those years ago these Huts were rather a basic living space with sacks of straw to sleep on and non of the fancy wooden furniture you find in them now...  but they are incredibly appealing and cosy and they do conjure up so many thoughts.    And there is something appealing in the fact that the huts can be moved around and taken to all sorts of locations amongst fields and woodland and hills...

​These images were all taken at a wonderful location we stayed in very recently, deep in the hills of the Scottish Borders, a gorgeous place which definitely felt very remote and away from it all, just what we needed.  The huts themselves are wonderful and the location is stunning, there were so many little details of textures, colours, patterns and different combinations of these at every turn.    We found ourselves creating stories and anecdotes about everything - as well as breathing deep restful breaths at the lack of "stuff" and clutter...   Its such an interesting experience to live in a small space for a while and to not need so much stuff...    Getting up early and sitting out watching the mist roll over the hills as you sup your morning coffee...   cooking and eating outside, lighting the fire and watching the dusk roll in and night fall as bats and owls flit about and call...    All very peaceful and idyllic.   I'm very aware that its an escape from many other things, but an escape which recharges the batteries and gives strength to return to all the other things. 

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August is always a time of year when schools projects ease off and there's a bit of a change of pace, its often a time when there's a bit of space to sort through work equipment and resources, to do some research and planning for further arts projects.   And with that often comes a chance to sort out my work room and even pay my own wildlife garden some attention...  so with trying to work through a huge list of jobs, I've been ensuring I intersperse it with time in the local landscape with the camera, maps and some space to ponder and contemplate.

​I've been living in Derbyshire for several years, but I grew up in the fens, so the landscape here is much more hilly than the flatness of the fens, but there is a wildness - even an appealing bleakness - about both places and also traces of ancestors to be found in many ways.   I live near Belper, a landscape that's part of the Derwent Mills World Heritage Site, a fascinating place full of ancient woodland, steep river valleys, moors and scattered throughout with buildings connected with the Industrial Revolution.    But there's also vast ancient history here and lots of that is clearly evident all around with stone circles, hill forts and traces of things like lead mining from the Romans and before that too.

​These are images I took last week between the ancient stone circle of Arbor Low and the steep industrial valley of Lumsdale, both nearby, really enchanting places and if you time it right, wonderful when hardly anyone else is about.  Arbor Low is an a high exposed site, with views for miles around (and wild winds often too!), its easy to speculate about why ancient people would have found the location captivating.    The stones are now all lying down, no one seems to really know why, but it does give the place an air of quirkiness too.  At sunset there's a real sense of the landscape settling down for the night as you can see for such vast distances and watch flocks of birds going to roost.  

​Lumsdale contains much more recent ruins, dating back to a set of mills and associated buildings which possibly go back as far as the 1600s.  Its a really fascinating place with an amazing combination of ruined stone buildings, waterfalls, woodland, ponds and tracks through the valley.  

​Both places invite you to really ponder about past uses and the lives of those who lived, worked and used the sites in many ways.  I love the way natural materials like stones contains marks which hold traces of past lives, old stone steps worn about by thousands of footsteps over the years or stones which have been cut and shaped by ancient hands.   

​And amidst the intensity of trying to sort out vast amounts of arts equipment, forest school resources, project planning and more, time out in landscape such as this provides such a sense of soothing and inspiration.    Special places to breathe deeply and take in far more than just fresh air... 

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After returning from Wales with some new energy I've found time to dig out lots of pots and pans that I use for natural dyes and to experiment with the wonderful technique of eco printing, something I've been meaning to explore for AGES!  ​Its already really addictive and hopefully I can make lots of time to play around with ideas before autumn sets firmly in and leaves and petals are then harder to find. 

I got together with the very wonderful Claire Crowley and Claire Uttley, two other creative forest school leaders who also wanted to explore this technique.    We spent at day at AMC Gardens (where I work a little bit of each week) and used the plants around us there to test lots of ideas out.    Once back home we've all continued to experiment - the day together was exactly the impetus we each needed.

​Bundle dyeing is a technique lots of people know through the work of the amazing artist India Flint, who creates really beautiful work and has published some very inspirational books, there are quite a lot of people exploring the technique now, partly through a desire to create work that has low impact on the environment, partly as part of a desire to slow down and take a more mindful approach to creating work and also as part of the interest in using the plants around us as a source for creations.

​I've been using plants to print with for many years, but mostly by working with printing inks and then layering up plants and papers through the printing press, which does give results I really love.     I've been exploring natural dyes for some time, but mostly onto raw sheep's fleece and then using this for felt making (though I'm determined to learn to use a spinning wheel too!).  This technique of eco bundle dyeing / printing is one I've been researching and its wonderful to finally feel I've begun my journey with this. 

​I love working with plants that surround me in different places, its part of forming a deep connection with the land and its definitely something I indent to continue to develop.  I grow many plants in my own little wildlife garden that are good for dye stuff and this printing process is like asking them to yield up new secrets!

​The actual process is very much about trial and error and also about stopping, slowing down and not needing a quick fix.    Taking time to walk and explore and gather the plants is important, some research into which plants are good for dyes is important too (although testing many out will give interesting and surprising results).    I'm especially enjoying the results onto paper and it will feed into all the little books I've been making.

​The paper and fabric is bundled up tightly and steamed (for at least an hour, but often much longer) and then left to cool before opening (the longer its left, the more the colours "cure").  There's lots of ways of adding mordants and colour modifiers and then also over-dyeing and re-dyeing etc, so its all very much about testing and experimenting and then recording results - its that wonderful cross over between art and science.

​I'm just off to gather more leaves!  

I think many of us need a little time away every now and then to places that fill us with ideas, inspiration and solace.   We each need different things and perhaps the key thing is knowing yourself well enough to work out what you need to seek out to recharge your batteries.    For me its wild landscapes, time immersed in nature, time alone and time with small groups of people I'm close to.     I'm a real introvert and need time away from crowds and noise and anything fast paced, I need time to walk and listen and reflect and ponder and discover.     I crave time to sit and watch the natural world and to focus and notice small details.

​There's a wonderful place in North Wales that a special group of close friends return to again and again, its our own organised retreat full of gentle creativity, experimentation, space to wonder, time to make things, walks, time to watch the light change over the sea, dog walks on the beach, kite flying and really good food.    We've just returned from some time there and the place has woven its magic over us all again.

​I really love being outside in all weathers, and although we did have a lot of sun too, its the wilder days where the colours of the landscape are muted and the wind whips about that I feel inspired by.     I've not altered the colours in these photos, there was such a wonderful colour palette provided by the natural world - with some great additions by the buildings dotted about (and a quirky little steam train!).

​This is the bottom end of the Snowdonia National Park, around the Mawddach Estuary and Cadair Idris, its a wonderful place full of mountains, hills, coast, vast swathes of beaches, wild estuaries and interesting little villages and towns dotted about.   The sounds of the sea and birds and wind rustling through the dunes are still in my head and processing all the photographs I've taken is a really good way of landing back here in Derbyshire and reflecting on what I felt and discovered in Wales.

​We always all bring sets of materials to make things with and its a wonderful opportunity to test out new ideas amongst supportive, like minded, creative friends.   I found myself needing to spend a lot of time outside watching the light change, wondering and photographing.    I also found time to weave, crochet and test out different yarn bindings; it also gives me a sense of permission to experiment and test out new things and since getting back home I've been really busy testing out eco bundle printing (another blog post to follow) which I've been wanting to explore for AGES!

​For me it feels very special finding places that you want to return to again and again, its always a sense of welcoming an old friend and peeling away layers and discovering more and more things.   The land has so many hidden elements, so much that changes and yet also a wonderful sense of solidity - of history that stretches back thousands and millions of years, and to me that feels very soothing.

The Belper starling murmeration is continuing to give local people such a sense of awe and wonder as part of our daily routine, it feels incredibly special.

​Every time I've managed to get along to watch, there's a little crowd gathered to enjoy the wonderful display; it feels such a strong sense of community as people of all ages take time to ensure they can appreciate this bit of magic on our doorstep.

​There's a ever present sparrowhawk too, and sometimes a peregrine, which adds to the drama and means the birds create someone really fast tight patterns as they fly - there's gasps from those who are watching.  

​There's never any guarantee of how the display will pan out each evening, it does change with the weather and then the different light and the rain and cloud and the moon all add to the whole experience - it fills all your senses as you watch.  The murmeration gets later each evening alongside twilight, and it will stop soon as spring takes a firmer hold - so it feels really important to take it all in whilst its here.   It feels that there's fewer birds now (though its still a large number) and they will start to migrate back to their breeding grounds, some in far flung northern places.  

​One of the utter delights in being to watch a murmeration as closely as this is that the birds swoop low over your head, it creates a really strong sound and you can feel the power of their wingbeats through the air as they dash overhead.  You can hear them calling to each other and when they do their sudden darting movements the sounds as they change direction and form tight thick balls is really spectacular.

​Its been great to have the opportunity to photograph and film them so much, though its hard to photograph so many birds moving so fast in the half-light of dusk!     But, I do make sure I put the camera down too whilst I'm there, because the best parts come through just watching and being there and fully taking it all in.

​Thank you starlings for adding some magical moments to our daily lives here.

One of the birds in the above photograph is not a starling...    Its like "Where's Wally?" of murmerations...

A truly wonderful winter sunset here yesterday - and I managed to get up onto the Derbyshire moors to a huge starling roost, such a spectacular thing to witness.

We were high up on a moor by an old quarry, its quite an amazing location. There was a little crowd of people gathered towards the end of the afternoon, it was cold, sunny and so still - something very special to share with other like minded people. Really beautiful.  The location is relatively well known locally amongst us wildlife lovers, and there's been some wonderful sharing of the murmeration formations, it does feel that more people are now making sure they take time to witness such special free spectacular natural wonders.

I adore watching starling roosts, you never quite know what might happen - they don't "perform" every night and roosts also shift, so there's no guarantee you'll see anything... which adds to the magic...    You get there in time, you wait and you wait... and you wait a bit more...

As the sun got lower in the sky yesterday, we could spot the odd little group of about 20 starlings passing over... and as the sky got more and more orange-pink, then more and more starlings appeared in little groups. Would they hang around? Would they just pass over? Would they just go straight into the reeds to roost? More and more little groups of starlings appeared and flew over - we all anxiously craned our necks to see where the little groups of birds were going... The little crowd of people fell silent - that in itself was really special, as if everyone was holding their breath, waiting and hoping...

And sure enough, the starlings did their thing...  Gradually the small groups of birds joined together, some had disappeared over the hillside and then reappeared as a huge group...  Soon, there were several large groups swirling and twisting in the sky, very long formations twisting over each other... The clouds were amazing too... And it is really hard to capture the atmosphere in photographs or film, I got some nice images, but it really is one of those "you had to be there" events...

After a really wonderful aerial show by the starlings, they slowly grouped into tighter and tighter balls as if coming to their finale - and then, all of a sudden, they dived into the reed bed to roost...   
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"Isn't nature amazing" said the woman next to me, really quietly, because none of us was quite ready to speak yet...

​She's right, nature is amazing...

The moor was incredibly still and calm as sunset drew close...

Its hard to capture in a still image, the thousands of starlings move about over a large area and twist and turn swooping this way and that...    Its a lovely challenge to try and capture it, but actually, just being present and taking it all in as the birds swoop all around you is the most important thing - and a real privilege.

The sound of the birds as they pass directly overhead is utterly amazing and really hard to describe...    they are all calling to each other and you can hear their wings beat and feel the air move as they swoop over you...    You feel a connection that's hard to put into words...

I had some lovely chats with other people there watching, one woman said to me "its so utterly beautiful, they don't care that we're here, they would be doing this anyway, we are just little specks and they are doing something huge and amazing"...